Why can't I use apt-get, dpkg, dnf, or rpm commands?

Most desktop Linux distributions are oriented towards tech-savvy users and developers, but Endless OS isn't your typical Linux distribution. We have a different target user. We don’t use rpm, apt, or any other packaging system. We use a read-only root file system managed by OSTree with application installed using Flatpak.

You may notice that the apt-get and dpkg commands are installed. This is because Endless OS is based on Debian, and these commands are used while creating Endless OS. Each release is a read-only snapshot, so you can use commands like dpkg -l which do not make changes to the system, but you cannot use commands like apt-get install.

For more information on the open-source software used to build Endless OS, see the Developers page on our website.